ached

"KARL-LUDWIG SAND."

Indeed, from that moment all correspondence between Karl and his family
ceased, and he only wrote to them, when he knew his fate, one more
letter, which we shall see later on.

We have seen by what attentions Sand was surrounded; their humanity
never flagged for an instant. It is the truth, too, that no one saw in
him an ordinary murderer, that many pitied him under their breath,
and that some excused him aloud. The very commission appointed by the
grand-duke prolonged the affair as much as possible; for the severity of
Sand's wounds had at first given rise to the belief that there would
be no need of calling in the executioner, and the commission was well
pleased that God should have undertaken the execution of the judgment.
But these expectations were deceived: the skill of the doctor defeated,
not indeed the wound, but death: Sand did not recover, but he remained
alive; and it began to be evident that it would be needful to kill him.

Indeed, the Emperor Alexander, who had appointed Kotzebue his
councillor, and who was under no misapprehension as to the cause of
the murder, urgently demanded that justice should take its course. The
commission of inquiry was therefore obliged to set to work; but as its
members were sincerely desirous of having some pretext to delay their
proceedings, they ordered that a physician from Heidelberg should visit
Sand and make an exact report upon his case; as Sand was kept lying
down and as he could not be executed in his bed, they hoped that the
physician's report, by declaring it impossible for the prisoner to rise,
would come to their assistance and necessitate a further respite.

The chosen doctor came accordingly to Mannheim, and introducing himself
to Sand as though attracted by the interest that he inspired, asked
him whether he did not feel somewhat better, and whether it would be
impossible to rise. Sand looked at him for an instant, and then said,
with a smile--

"I understand, sir; they wish to know whether I am strong enough to
mount a scaffold: I know nothing about it myself, but we will make the
experiment together."

With these words he rose, and accomplishing, with superhuman courage,
what he had not attempted for fourteen months, walked twice round the
room, came back to his bed, upon which he seated himself, and said:

"You see, sir, I am strong enough; it would therefore be wasting
precious time to keep my judges longer about my af